Breakfast in Bed Tray

I stumbled upon a tray at a thrift store a few weeks ago, it was only $3 but it had monkeys all over it (not that there is anything wrong with monkeys-they just aren't my thing). I knew that it was a great find in need of a makeover. It has been sitting in my craft room closet since the day I brought it home. After I brought my mouse sander this weekend, I knew it was time to get to work on it!

Let's take a look at the before and after shot and then I will get to the details...

I started by sanding the tray. My hope was that the sander would help me get the monkey paper off.

Sadly, that stuff was stuck on so well I couldn't get it to budge. I decided to go ahead and paint over the monkey paper...

I used a taupe colored spray paint and gave the tray 3 good coats, letting the paint dry in between the coats....

Since the monkey paper was still on the tray, it was causing the top of the tray to look a little rough and I wasn't happy with how it looked. I started thinking about what I could use to cover that up completely and fabric came to mind.

More specifically, a dish towel that my mom bought for me. It is such a beautiful towel, she bought it for me thinking it would make a great pillow (and it would) but I decided it should be the top of my tray.

While the paint dried I measured the tray, cut the towel to size and hemmed up the new edges.

Once the tray was good and dry, I brought it inside and used an even layer of modge podge to attach the fabric to the tray's top. (NOTE: I tested modge podge on the scraps that I cut to make sure modge podge did not discolor my fabric, I would recommend doing this so you don't ruin your fabric.)

I used thumb tacks in the corners to pull the fabric so that it wouldn't bubble up as the modgepodge dried...

I put books on top of it too because I was paranoid about it bubbling up...

After giving the bottom coat time to dry, I spread a layer of ModgePodge on top of the fabric and let it dry.

After letting the top coat dry, I moved it into our guest bedroom. When we visited my best friend, Taylor, she had the cutest tray in the guest bedroom. I just loved that idea! Thanks to Tay's inspiration, our guests now have this sweet little tray awaiting them when they arrive!

I am really happy with the final product! This was such a quick and easy project. Next time I bump into some cheap trays, I am gonna snatch them up, these would make great gifts!